The Best Month and Day to List is?

Spring has officially sprung, but the spring housing market started about a month ago, according to most real estate agents. With the supply of homes for sale not even close to demand, competition has been fierce, and that is changing the rules of the real estate road. Yes, it's a seller's market, but not all homes sell quickly, especially if they're not priced right and if the timing isn't right.

When is the best time to sell? That depends on whom you ask.

"It's early May, and the reason is because inventory being so tight, a lot of homebuyers are having to put in multiple offers. That is extending the length of the homebuying season, such that a lot of times later on in the season people are more eager to buy the house because they have been frustrated with earlier offers, and they are paying a little bit more money," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow Group.

There are 9 percent fewer homes this buying season compared with a year ago, so listing in early May results in you selling your house about 18 days faster and for about 1 percent more than you would get otherwise, according to Zillow.

In other words, Zillow expects a buyer-desperation factor come May that will result in buyers paying more. Back in 2011 and 2012, when there was less buyer competition, March was best for sellers. Zillow then looked at the last two years, when competition was hotter and found May was better in 18 of the largest 25 metropolitan housing markets.

"In most markets right now we are seeing the conventional way of buying to have shifted really to staging for multiple offers, which is a huge shift from where we were just three-four years ago," Humphries said.

Yearly Existing Home Sales Continue to Increase:

The Existing Home Sales report (homes that have been previously occupied) is hot off the press.  The National Association of Realtors released the data this morning for the largest segment of our housing market. 

Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, came in at an annual rate of 5.08 million in February which is 2.2 percent higher than a year ago. 

Job growth and low rates continue to fuel the housing market but a severe lack of inventory is making it difficult to move at a faster pace and was the primary reason that the month-over-month reading fell.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in February was $210,800, up 4.4 percent from February 2015 ($201,900). February's price increase marks the 48^th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Total housing inventory at the end of February increased 3.3 percent to 1.88 million existing homes available for sale, but is still 1.1 percent lower than a year ago (1.90 million). Unsold inventory is at a 4.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 4.0 months in January.

All-cash sales were 25 percent of transactions in February, down from 26 percent both in January and a year ago. Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 18 percent of homes in February (17 percent in January), matching the highest share since April 2014. Sixty-four percent of investors paid cash in February.

House Flipping Hits 10Y High:

Rising home prices are bringing more house flippers out of the woodwork. The number of active home flippers last year was the highest in nearly a decade, and it is only growing.

Nearly 180,000 family homes and condos were flipped in 2015, according to RealtyTrac. A flip is defined as a home that is bought and sold again within the same 12 months. Flips made up 5.5 percent of all sales last year, and that is the first increase in the flip share after four years of shrinking. Flipping increased in 75 percent of U.S. markets, and the profits are growing as well.

This serves an important role in a market with extremely tight inventories.  These homes are revitalized and added to the inventory pool.

Prices are rising fast, not because buyers can afford to pay more but because of extremely short supply of homes for sale, especially on the lower end of the market. Home prices in January were 6.9 percent higher than the January 2015, according to CoreLogic, a higher annual gain than in December. Home flipping can push prices even higher, especially in markets with the tightest inventory.

As confidence in the housing recovery spreads, more real estate investors and would-be real estate investors are hopping on the home flipping bandwagon," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at RealtyTrac. "Not only is the share of home flips on the rise again, but we also see the flipping trend trickling down to smaller investors who are completing fewer flips per year."

Flippers are watching home prices rise, and in turn seeing returns rise. Homes flipped in 2015 yielded an average gross profit of $55,000 nationwide, the highest for flips nationally since 2005, according to RealtyTrac. The return on investment was close to 46 percent, up from 44 percent in 2014 and up from 35 percent in 2005. 2005 was when flipping was rampant, thanks to super easy credit. Back then, over 8 percent of all sales were flips.